ArcaMax

DEAR HARRIETTE: I live in a nice apartment building in Los Angeles, and it costs a lot of money to live here. Since I pay such a premium, you would think that my neighbors would all be respectful. However, my upstairs neighbor plays music so loud all the time, I can still hear his music at 2 a.m. I've asked him to turn down the music many times,...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am getting married in a traditional church ceremony. My father, who will be giving me away, has refused to wear a tuxedo on the grounds that it is a "monkey suit," even though all of the other men in the wedding party will be wearing one.

I gave in, because I want him to be happy and comfortable. Now he says he will not ...Read more

Dear Annie: My best friend and I have been close since college. He is the person who helped me move into my first apartment, who showed up with coffee during finals, who still remembers the name of my childhood dog. That is why it hurts so much to watch him repeat the same pattern that already cost him almost everything.

Years ago, his ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: My best friend, "Brooke," started dating a man, "Angus," last year. From the start, he made a poor impression. He met Brooke while he was dating another woman but didn't tell Brooke about her. Brooke continued hanging out with him only after he broke up with his girlfriend.

The past few months have been nothing short of awful. I see ...Read more

The city invited me to ride on its inaugural hot-air balloon flight. We headed to the local high school fields at a chilly dawn, and the brand new balloon slowly woke as air and heat gave it shape. The burners thundered, and the basket rocked beneath our feet. Then the ground loosened its hold. Gravity softened. The familiar sense of weight, not...Read more

Dear Annie: I got divorced after 27 years of marriage. I didn't leave because I stopped loving my husband -- I left because I was lonely inside my own home. We stopped talking, stopped laughing, stopped noticing each other. I spent years saying, "It's fine" until one day I realized I didn't want my life to be fine. I wanted it to be real.

My ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: It seems that everywhere I go, people expect tips. Yesterday, I pulled up to the drive-through at a cookie store, and before I paid or was handed my cookies, the clerk asked, "Would you like to leave a tip?" My niece recently told me that after she left a tip at a restaurant, the server followed her outside and asked if she hadn't ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: My son told me that he's in need of a laptop, as his old one broke down on him. I asked what was keeping him from getting a new one, and he shared that he didn't want to overspend without saving up a bit longer. A couple of weeks went by, and I decided to give him more than half of the cost of the computer he wanted. I told him ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I got married recently. It is a second marriage for both of us, but our first weddings were two decades ago, and we wanted to have a special event that really felt like a wedding.

We paid for the whole thing ourselves. It was simple and relatively small, but it was definitely and unambiguously a wedding: We sent paper ...Read more

Dear Annie: I see that you often answer questions pertaining to families trapped in addiction. I grew up in that special hell with all of the complex trauma issues that go along with that lifestyle.

I am a card-carrying member of Alcoholics Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics. I have found ACA the most helpful. You never mention it, so I...Read more

DEAR ABBY: A few years back, my brother gave me a substantial amount of cryptocurrency. A couple of years after that, he did something that hurt me and my husband deeply and destroyed any trust I had in him. As a result, I have greatly reduced contact with him as well as my entire family.

When I explained how what he did made me feel and how it...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: I became a dad at a young age. I had my first daughter at 18 and my second when I was 22. When their mom and I broke up, the three of them moved out of state, so I've been a long-distance parent to my daughters for about six years now. I have them on holidays and summer break, but because of the distance, I often feel nervous or ...Read more

DEAR MISS MANNERS: What degree of formality is proper for a musician at an afternoon concert?

As a performer of a certain age, I have seen everything from tailored dresses to gowns glittering with beads and spangles -- and for men, anything from the most casual outfits to formal wear. Length of skirt no longer seems to matter, as the skimpiest ...Read more

Dear Annie: I am struggling with what to do about one of my very best friends who is basically family to me at this point. Throughout our friendship, I have noticed that she does not say "thank you" very often. This includes when a gift is given to her or even when a customer purchases something in person from her small business.

When I have ...Read more

DEAR ABBY: I saw my husband's Instagram account, and he's following only women who show their bodies provocatively. Is that emotional cheating, or is it just lust? Also, is that grounds for divorce? His looking at and lusting after women online hurts my feelings. -- IMAGE PROBLEM IN ALABAMA

DEAR IMAGE PROBLEM: What you have described is lust. ...Read more